Dan Scott Biography
My music tastes and most of my favourite bands were all shown to me by dad. From being really young I was in love with the bands and the music that my dad showed me, Pink Floyd, The Who, Supertramp, Genesis, 10CC, Elvis Presley, and tonnes more. I used to love singing along to songs. Despite this I never had the urge to actually pick up an instrument until I was thirteen and I got my first guitar from a car boot sale. It was a really cheap guitar and I didn’t think I was going to play it that much, I actually had a large interest in becoming an artist or a graphic designer at the time. However, when I picked up the guitar I found it very difficult to put back down again. I taught myself and found it quite easy to learn songs just by listening to them. When it came to choosing my BTEC subjects, I initially didn’t pick music, as I didn’t think I was good enough to do it, but the music teacher at the school had heard me playing at lunchtime in the music room and approached me asking me to consider it as a subject, so I did. From this point I started to take playing the guitar more seriously, I played for hours and hours each day. I was offered free guitar lessons by the school, and I took one, but didn’t enjoy it that much and never went back and decided to teach myself everything using resources on the internet and in books as I seemed to learn better that way. When I was fourteen, my friend and I, a drummer, started our first band, playing songs from rock and punk bands we liked, in a shed, twice a week. These band rehearsals helped me to develop as a musician; I finally had feedback and could hear what I sounded like with an ensemble. This also helped me develop my skills in rhythm and keeping in time. We used to jam a lot and just make up things on the spot, so I decided to learn some scales and solo techniques so I could improve my improvisational skills. After many hours of rehearsals the band decided to part ways, and me and the bassist started a new metal band, after spending a while finding the right members we got to gigging as soon as we could. This was a new experience and I loved it. Eventually I finished my level 2 BTEC music course with a distinction and went to sixth form to start the level 3 BTEC music course on the double award. Over the 2 years, the band I was in played over 100 gigs, including several small metal festivals in the north east and two performances at the O2 Academy in Newcastle. As well as the lead guitarist and backup vocalist of the band I was the promoter and manager. I set up a few headlining gigs for us too and we always had a great crowd turnout and ticket sales were always high. I became interested in the production side of music while in the recording studio with the band in my friends fathers home recording studio. During these sessions he showed me how to use the software and equipment he had. When I finished sixth form I got a DD*, not long after finding out I was going to uni, the band split up. During this course I wish to expand upon my knowledge of music in general, I wish to further my skills as a guitarist and as a multi-instrumentalist. I would like to perform lots of gigs with an ensemble and as a soloist, as I find this is a field in which I am passionate about. The piece is called High Hopes.